


look and you will always find me

by katsumi



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Star Wars Setting, M/M, Rogue One AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-04
Updated: 2017-01-04
Packaged: 2018-09-14 16:14:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9191954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katsumi/pseuds/katsumi
Summary: “Your superhuman knack for reprogramming droids isn’t going to help you when you’re staring down a line of stormtroopers,” Nate says, clearly annoyed.“It probably won’t help me,” Monty agrees. “But you would.”Nate startles. "What?""I don't need to know how to use a blaster," Monty says, simply. "I have you."[A Rogue One AU.]





	

**Author's Note:**

> This parallel was way, way too strong, so here we are.
> 
> It didn't make sense to me that Monty would be great at martial arts, so I made his force-sensitivity jive with something much more Monty-esque.
> 
> In other news: still broken about Rogue One.

When Monty is ten years old, he successfully rewires a shot-down TIE fighter without ever having set foot inside one before.

 

Stormtroopers are closing in, and his fingers shake as he rearranges the wires, but he feels a strange lack of fear. He’s already an orphan; the only thing left to lose is his life, and that’s always been expendable.

 

He not only reprograms the smoking carcass of a ship, but he manages to fly it—a wobbly, nausea-inducing flight across the sands of Jedha. He’s hailed a hero when he slumps the ship into a sand dune just outside Jedha City. Marcus Kane, leader of the covert rebel faction that’s headquartered on planet, pulls him aside, eyes wide.

 

“The force is strong with you,” Kane whispers, almost frantic.

 

Monty knows he’s not supposed to laugh, but he can’t help it. “I don’t think so. I’m a terrible fighter.”

 

“You think the force only works one way?”

 

Monty shrinks away, digs his heels into the sand. “I’m no jedi.”

 

“I never said you were,” Kane replies. “But you are _something_.”

 

* * *

 

Kane takes him to the Temple of the Kyber. Monty doesn’t want to go, but he’s hungry and tired and Kane is the kind of man you can’t say no to.

 

“Monty Green,” Kane announces, pushing Monty forward. “He’s strong with the force.”

 

The head of the Guardians of the Whills glances down at him, and Monty tenses. There’s a boy about Monty’s age standing behind him, grip tight on a blaster against his thigh.

 

But then the man smiles at him, tight.

 

“This isn’t an orphanage,” he says, glancing back at Kane.

 

“I can’t use him,” Kane says. “But you can, David. He’s no soldier, but he will be valuable to you.”

 

This plea seems to have little effect, until the as-yet unnamed boy clears his throat.

 

“Dad,” he says, more of a grunt than a word. And the man’s face softens.

 

“I hear you’re good at engineering,” he says to Monty, considering. “That you’re able to understand new technologies within minutes, as if you’ve been operating them your whole life.”

 

“I am.”

 

“We have a device we use to intercept Imperial codes. It’s broken. Would you be able to fix it?”

 

Monty was raised to be modest, but this isn’t a matter of modesty: it’s a matter of truth.

 

“Of course I can,” he says.

 

The man smiles, stretching out his hand. “I'm David Miller. Welcome, Monty.”

 

* * *

 

 

Monty spends hours trying to fix the interceptor, and the other boy watches him the entire time.

 

“Are you guarding me or something?” Monty grumbles at one point, distracted by the feel of eyes boring into the back of his neck.

 

“No.”

 

“You have a blaster.”

 

“I always have a blaster.”

 

“Look, um—what’s your name?”

 

The boy blinks. “Nathan. Uh, Nate.”

 

“Look, Nate, I’m not going to run away. Or destroy your stuff. Serious.”

 

Nate frowns. “I didn’t think you were. I just...wanted to see if you could really do it.”

 

“Oh,” Monty says. “Well come closer, then. I can definitely do it.”

 

That day brings a lot of firsts for Monty: his first time sleeping in a room that’s all his own since his mother died. His first time being gifted a set of brand new clothes. And, after he finally cracks that interceptor, his first time ever seeing Nathan Miller smile.

 

* * *

 

 

When Monty is fourteen years old, Nate tries to teach him how to use a blaster. Monty shoots three scorching holes through a sacred tapestry, meters away from the target Nate had set up, and then shoves the blaster back into Nate’s hands.

 

“See? Not for me.”

 

Nate glances down at him—he’s already hit his growth spurt; Monty kind of hates it—and scowls. “You’re good at literally everything. How are you so bad at this?”

 

“ _All is as the force wills it_ ,” Monty sings, and Nate does that thing where he bites the side of his lip to keep himself from grinning.

 

“Shut up. You can’t use that for everything.”

 

“The force says I can.”

 

“Not how that works,” Nate grunts. He shoves his hands onto Monty’s shoulders and spins him back around. “Come on. You need to learn this. You can’t be a Guardian and not be able to shoot.”

 

“Why not?” Monty grumbles. “I have other skills.”

 

“Yeah, but your superhuman knack for reprogramming droids isn’t going to help you when you’re staring down a line of stormtroopers,” Nate says, clearly annoyed.

 

“It probably won’t help me,” Monty agrees. “But you would.”

 

Nate startles. "What?"

 

"I don't need to know how to use a blaster," Monty says, simply. "I have you."

 

"What if I’m not there?” Nate asks.

 

“What, are you going somewhere without me?” Monty teases. But when he turns, Nate’s face is suddenly _so_ close to his, and Monty’s laughter dies in his throat.

 

“No,” Nate says, his mouth a hard line. Monty feels a strange prickle of electricity dance up his spine, and he has to look away.

 

* * *

 

 

When Monty is sixteen years old, the Empire seizes the Temple of Kyber.

 

Monty races through the corridors that wind beneath the temple to his room when the blasterfire breaks out, searching for the blaster Nate insists he keep but that he never uses. After a few seconds of searching through his drawers, his door slams open and Nate enters, furious and frantic.

 

“We need to go,” he says, as Monty scrambles through his drawers. “Monty. _Now_.”

 

“We need to fight!” Monty shouts back, finally hooking his hand around his blaster. “We can’t let them—”

 

“Monty!” Nate grabs his wrist, and when he spins around he sees that Nate’s eyes are wet, his breath heavy.

 

“My dad,” he manages to say, and Monty’s heart plummets. “He...Monty, we have to go.”

 

Monty manages to guide them out through the back. It must be the force at work again, because he’s able to perfectly time their steps, hiding and sprinting so that they don’t run into a single stormtrooper until they burst out into the streets of Jedha City.

 

The Guardians of the Whills put up their best possible fight, but they are outmanned and outgunned at every turn; not even support from Marcus Kane’s militia can save them. Monty and Nate watch from a nearby hill as a star destroyer sinks down from the sky to hover above the temple, and Nate’s hand tightens around Monty’s.

 

“I’m so sorry,” Monty whispers, watching as his second precious home slides into shadow.

 

Nate’s head pitches forward onto Monty’s shoulder, and Monty can feel him shake with tears he refuses to acknowledge out loud.

 

They make it to a safehouse on the outskirts of the city, a tucked away space that the guardians sometimes used when out on patrol. There’s one measly mat on the floor, and Nate—ashen, silent Nate—motions for Monty to take it. Monty doesn’t think twice about pulling Nate down beside him, curling around him in the darkness.

 

“We’ve lost everything,” Nate whispers.

 

“Not yet,” Monty says, his voice breaking. “The force is still with us, Nate.”

 

“No. It’s not.”

 

“It is,” Monty insists, and for perhaps the first time in his life, he believes it. “The force is strong with me, Nate. I know that, because we’re still here.”

 

“You say that like it’s a blessing.”

 

Monty swallows. He presses his nose against Nate’s neck.

 

“It _is_ a blessing. You’re still here. You’re still with me.”

 

Nate tilts his cheek against Monty’s forehead.

 

“Always.”

 

* * *

 

 

They are the last two guardians, and there is nothing left to guard.

 

Nate patrols the streets clutching his father’s crossbow blaster to his chest, and Monty begins work on a new radio to intercept Imperial transmissions. They don’t have the strength to take back the temple now, but they can at least be prepared for the day they get their chance.

 

Before he tries to turn on his messy, stitched-together creation, he steps back and closes his eyes.

 

“I am one with the force.” He whispers the incantation, hesitant. “And the force is with me.”

 

And then something ticks in the corner of his brain, and Monty scrambles over to the radio, and sure enough: he’s mixed up two of the wires. He switches them back.

 

“I am one with the force,” he says, a little louder this time. “And the force is with me.”

 

He presses the button, and the radio hums to life.

 

* * *

 

 

Jedha City is like a fuel canister beside an open flame, always on the brink of complete and utter destruction. Monty and Nate keep the peace the best they can, smuggling extra rations into the city’s walled-off center providing backup for Kane and his soldiers when they conduct raids.

 

At night, Monty listens to his radio while Nate heats up rations. It’s comforting to know that somewhere, a group of people far more numbered than Kane’s is refusing to back down, fighting the Empire at every turn.

 

One night, when Nate is looking especially surly, Monty fiddles with his device and pulls up a station playing warbly harp music from a nearby moon.

 

Nate glances over, surprised. “How did you do that? That shouldn’t be possible.”

 

Monty grins. “Well you see, I’m one with the force and the force is with me.”

 

Nate rolls his eyes. “Shut up and eat.”

 

* * *

 

 

Monty gets better at using his blaster, although not by much. He rarely has the chance to use it, what with Nate never being more than three feet away. And then one day, in the midst of a skirmish just outside the city gates, Monty finds himself facing a stormtrooper head-on with no time to call for backup.

 

He shoots once, twice: both shots miss. And then the stormtrooper is charging at him, and all Monty can think to do is hurl his blaster with all his strength at the white helmet.

 

Miraculously, this _works_. The blaster goes off when it bounces against the hard surface of the uniform, shooting the stormtrooper in the head.

 

Monty spins, grinning, only to find four more stormtroopers drawing their blasters.

 

He squeezes his eyes shut at the roar of blasterfire, but nothing touches him. When he opens his eyes, the stormtroopers are sprawled across the ground.

 

Monty looks over his shoulder; Nate’s standing there, scowling.

 

“That’s not how you’re supposed to use your blaster,” he says.

 

“But it worked!” Monty says.

 

“I don’t know how.”

 

“It was the force, Nate,” Monty chirps, bending down to pick up his blaster. “The force protected me!”

 

Nate stares at him, affronted. “I protected you!”

 

Monty laughs, patting Nate’s shoulder. And then, because he’s still coursing with adrenaline, he lifts himself on his toes and presses his lips, fast, against Nate’s.

 

“And I thank you for that,” he says, already pulling away. “Just like the force, you’re always here when I need you.” But Nate’s hand closes on his wrist, and when Monty turns back, Nate's brow is furrowed, expression serious.

 

“I always will be,” he says, firm, and even though they really should be hightailing it out of there as fast as they can, Monty can't stop himself from reaching up to kiss Nate again.

 

* * *

 

 

When Monty is eighteen years old, he intercepts a strange transmission on his radio.

 

“Someone’s looking for Kane,” he tells Nate, frowning at the machine. “Someone from the rebellion.”

 

“Who? He broke ties with them years ago.”

 

“Remember his ward?” Monty asks. “The blonde girl?”

 

“Liana something?”

 

“Well, whoever’s on this transmission is called Clarke,” Monty says. “But I think they’re the same person.”

 

Nate frowns at him. “How would you know?”

 

Monty raises an eyebrow, and Nate huffs.

 

“Shut up. Don’t say the force.”

 

“You asked.”

 

“I hate you.”

 

“You really don’t.”

 

He finds them in town later that day: a tired, freckled man tight on the heels of a blonde woman with sharp eyes and an even sharper frown. He waits until the man pulls away, and then sidles up to the woman as stealthily as he can.

 

“Clarke?” he asks, and she must jump two feet.

 

“How did you—”

 

“I just know,” Monty says, with a little shrug. “I’m a Guardian of the Whills. We used to work with Kane a lot.”

 

“Not anymore?” she asks, clearly skeptical. In the crowd, Monty can see Nate watching them, hand gripping his blaster.

 

“He’s moved his hideaway,” Monty says. “That’s why you can’t find him, right?”

 

“How did you know I can’t—”

 

“Clarke,” Monty says, patiently as he can. “I just know things. But I’m a friend, I promise.”

 

She considers him. “You’re not a jedi, are you?”

 

“Don't stay that, it'll get to his head,” Nate says, pulling up to them. He turns to Clarke. “Get your friend, we need to get out of here.”

 

“Bellamy’s not my friend,” Clarke bites back, immediately. Then: “Wait, why should I go anywhere with you?”

 

“Monty trusts you,” Nate says, shrugging. “And this place is about to be overridden with stormtroopers. Come with me, and we can help you find Kane.”

 

Clarke opens her mouth to respond, but then the man from before—Bellamy, Monty presumes—slides in between her and Nate.

 

“What’s going on here?” he asks, voice deep and threatening. Over his shoulder, Monty sees Clarke roll her eyes.

 

“We’re going with them,” Clarke says. “Let’s go.”

 

“We don’t even know them,” Bellamy retorts. Then he shakes his head, as if remembering: “Also, I don’t take orders from you.”

 

“I trust them,” Clarke decides, nodding at Monty. “And you’ve promised to trust me. So, we’re going.”

 

Bellamy starts to protest, but Clarke is already stalking off, and Nate throws Monty a look that clearly says these two? You want to take in these two? Seriously?

 

They huddle around a lantern on the floor of Monty and Nate’s cramped little apartment, and after Clarke elbows him in the ribs, Bellamy explains. They’re looking for Kane, but only as a way to get to Clarke’s mother, Abby Griffin. She has knowledge that could prove fatal to the Empire. It feels like finding some missing piece of a puzzle, listening to their story, and Monty’s feels lightning in his fingertips.

 

_It’s in reach. The chance is finally here._

 

“Well, that’s a mission I can get behind,” says Nate, when Bellamy’s finished. He looks over at Monty. “You in?”

 

Monty smiles. “You really had to ask?”

 

* * *

 

 

Everything happens so fast after that.

 

They find Kane, pick up a shellshocked Imperial defector named Wells Jaha, and manage to escape the planet before the Empire’s terrible Death Star arrives and burns everything to dust.

 

They journey to Eadu. Clarke’s mom dies, but not before managing to tell Clarke that the Death Star has one key weakness just waiting to be exploited if only they can obtain the construction plans. Clarke and Bellamy scream at each other afterwards in the bay of the ship, and Monty rests his head against Nate’s shoulder.

 

They both know the weight of watching a parent die.

 

Then they’re on Yavin IV, and the rebellion refuses to help them. But Clarke is determined—Clarke has more fight in her than Monty thought was possible for such a small person—and so they decide to go get the plans themselves. When Bellamy approaches Clarke and says that he wants to help, she gives him this soft, secret smile that makes Monty's heart ache.

 

“You’re okay with this?” Monty asks Nate, as Nate straps another ring of bullets around his waist.

 

“It’s what we have to do,” says Nate.

 

“I just want to make sure,” Monty says, quietly. He’s made his peace with this, with the severity of what they’re about to do, but he needs to know Nate has, too. “Jedha City doesn’t exist anymore, but there are other places in the galaxy to call home.”

 

Nate looks up.

 

“You are my home,” he says, firm. “Where you go, I go.”

 

Monty leans forward and presses his forehead against Nate’s.

 

“May the force be with us,” Monty breathes.

 

“With you,” Nate corrects, quietly. His hands settle on Monty’s waist, pulling him closer. “The force is already with you.”

 

“It’s with you, too,” Monty says, closing his eyes. “Where you are, I am. So it’s with you, too.”

 

Monty can’t see it, but he knows Nate is smiling. He just knows.

 

**Author's Note:**

> (...and then we know what happens after that because we’ve all seen the movie but I couldn’t bring myself to write it?????)
> 
> come say hi on tumblr [here](http://leralynne.tumblr.com)


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